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Chapter 5 How It Works page 58 ‘Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.’ until end of the paragraph: ‘…but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.’

Question 1a) Separate Honesty, Open-mindedness and Willingness.Take each word and compare how you were when you started the Big Book workshop with where you are now.b) Ask yourself: am I now more honest in all my affairs?Write down the acronym for Ego: Ease God Out.

Question 2How does How It Works take care of EGO (Ease God Out).

Question 3What does ‘thoroughly followed our path’ mean to youa) in your step one fellowship path?b) in the big Book step study path?Circle the words in bold: Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program​Question 4a) Right now are you ‘constitutionally incapable of being honest’ with yourself about something?b) What does being ‘rigorously honest’ mean to you today?

We Agnostics page 55 from 2nd paragraph: ‘Actually we were fooling ourselves…’ until chapter end page 57 ‘When we drew near to Him He disclosed Himself to us!’

Soul work

look up: diligently, vicissitude.

On page 55, 3rd paragraph above ‘Great Reality’ write ‘God/HP’.Write down the slogan: ‘We are not bad people trying to get good, we are sick people trying to get well.’

Q1. Dr Bob and Bill Wilson say ‘…deep down in every man, woman, and child is the fundamental idea of God.’ To find out what you worship, review your spending and also look at your calendar to see where you spend your time. Then make a summary of this.

Q2. Read the 2nd paragraph on page 55 several times. Then write on it after asking God: ‘What do you want me to know about this paragraph?’

Q3. The Big Book encourages you to search diligently within yourself. Are you doing this?

Q4a) At what stage of the Broad Highway are you? b) Are you searching diligently and making this a priority? c) Is your HP showing you what to do or are you supposed to just stay on the Broad Highway? Really explore this.​Q5. Read through the whole chapter: We Agnostics picking out every capitalized reference to God, e.g. Broad Highway, Great Reality, etc.

We Agnostics page 54, start of 3rd paragraph: ‘Hence, we saw that reason isn’t everything.’ Until page 55, end of 1st paragraph: ‘We had seen spiritual release, but like to tell ourselves it wasn’t true.’

Look up: emanate

Q1. Write out the four prayers: 3rd step prayer, 7th step prayer, Serenity Prayer and the Set Aside Prayer.In your Quiet Time use these four prayers as part of your Quiet Time and write out a vision statement for yourself.

Q2. What was the last decision you reasoned out on your own without God? How did it turn out, was it dependable?

Q3. Circle ‘spiritual liberation from this world’ and write ‘this equates with step 12’.“Yet we had been seeing another kind of flight, a spiritual liberation from this world, people who rose above their problems.”

Q4. Circle this sentence. It is a promise that you are going to have a spiritual liberation from the desire to eat and drink and be co-dependent and depend on people and institutions.

Q5. Write this down: ‘Part of spiritual liberation from this world is to accept that we’ve made mistakes’.​Q6. My mistakes are my best tool in helping others with my higher power.Write on this.

Question 3Page 54:1 Did not these feelings, after all, determine the course of our existence?Circle feelings

Question 4‘Feelings are a gift from God/Higher Power.’Write about this.

Question 5‘Feelings are not facts.’ Write about this.

Question 6Write about a major mistake you made based on your feelings.

Question 7Write out an action plan.a. When you have a feeling thank God for it. (e.g. I am really sad my beloved cousin passed. Thank God I can grieve his passing).b. Place the feeling in your higher power’s hands.c. What’s the next action I need to do to live a healthy, recovered life?d. Who am I going to ask for help and accountability?‘Did not these feelings, after all, determined the course of our existence? It was impossible to say we had no capacity for faith, or love, or worship. In one form of another we had been living by faith and little else.’

Question 8Is that the faith that you had? That you were your own god and that your feelings were to be worshiped and acted upon just like a god or addiction?

(1) a)Put a bookmark by BB p. 53 paragraph 2 sentence 1: ” When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either G-d is everything or else He is nothing.”(b)Write this sentence on a large (3×5) card & put it in your BB w/ some sort of a title so you will know that This is our Problem & the Solution is RIGHT HERE- that:G-D is EVERYTHING OR G-D is NOTHING.

(2) Are you going to believe it? … AND- Are you going to believe that you have been squarely confronted w/ the Question of: Are you going to believe in Steps 1,2 & 3?

(3) (a) Are u WILLING to believe it ( that G-d is EVERYthing OR G-d is NOthing) when you’re told it’s TRUE? (b) Are you Willing to Live It Out? (c) WHAT will ‘Willing to Believe’ & ‘Willing to Live it Out’ LOOK LIKE in the areas of YOUR Life? Write on this & OWN It.

(4) Are you confronting the question of putting G-D Into your Life? (This comes in layers…)

(5)What’s that NEW reason that “we couldn’t quite step ashore”?​Write it down ( & just Go To G-D w/ it ).

Our live phone meetings are every Thursday at 8:00 AM EST. The phone number for these live meetings is (712) 775-7031, and the meeting ID number is 714744988#.

Please send donations to support the website to:

Stephanie Whiting P O Box 531 North Pembroke MA 02358

You can listen to our recorded meetings at (641) 715-3900, pin 95666# for our Thursday Big Book Step Study workshop. You can also hear our Tuesday Big Book Study recordings at (641) 715-3900, pin 298913#. These meetings can be accessed at any time.